19 February 2018

Fr H's Spring Examination

(1) "When I perceive resistance, I try to talk." In no more than a hundred words, discuss whether these words (spoken by someone who has refused to meet four Cardinals when they begged him for a meeting)indicate a seriously defective memory or merely a mind for which Truth is a tertiary consideration.(2) "The question is not that of changing doctrine, but of digging deep and making sure that pastoral practice takes into account the situations and what persons are able to do." In no more than 100 words, discuss how this Paradigm Shift should be applied either to a confirmed and recidivist paedophile or to a public servant assigned to extermination duties during a genocide. Credit will be given if you estimate how deep the digging should go.(3) "You are, objectively, committing a very grave evil, and if you understood what you were doing, you would be heading for H**l. So, as I accompany you on your journey, my advice to you is to take care to remain in invincible ignorance, so that I can in good conscience advise you to approach the Sacraments". In no more than 100 words, discuss this advice in the light of Amoris laetitia.

I have a question about "ignorantia invincibilis". This kind of ignorance is maybe something a member of an Amazonas tribe would have, if he had never come in contact with a Christian. BUT in the case of any Catholic, ignorance is vincibile. We have the resources to learn about morality. Failing to do so doesn not excuse from just punishment. So, it should be "ignorantia vincibilis". Or did I miss something?

Father Hunwicke: As a recently retired professor, I salute you on your sound pedagogy. Yes, the task at hand seems to be the retraining of entire populations in the principles of basic logic. Best wishes for a holy Lent.

Dear Fr Hunwicke, if you haven't read the draft dogmatic constitution that had been elaborated in order to be approved by II Vatican Council "de ordine morali christiano", I very much advise you to read it: it is very clear on the fact that the nature of the Christian moral order is objective and not subjective ...Among the many interesting things the IIVC finally didn't teach, but could have taught, you find that

Dear Professor Hunwicke,I regret I must ask to be excused from the examination. You are owed an explanation.The dean has informed we students that all prior information provided by various professors along the educational way no longer applies, and in fact, what was taught to us as Truth is now Lies, and what was taught as Lies, is now Truth. This has left the student body in a state of shock as you can well imagine, but we're doing our best to adjust. We have heard some talk that there are small pockets of academic resistance to this notion of the complete redefinition of all prior knowledge, and you may have heard some professors have taken the extreme measure of submitting questions to the dean on his pronouncements, but as he has refused to engage any conversation on the matter, the professors have apparently decided it is in everybody's best interest to let the matter go (for the sake of school unity). We students were initially very confused, but since our professors express their support for the dean's new ideas, it seems we students must now adjust to the new teaching. It will take some time for us to unlearn all we have been erroneously taught, but we'll get there. Next year's class is very fortunate, they will not suffer this confusion, but will only be taught the new Truth. How much easier it will be for them!Please give me some time to adjust to the new reality of well, reality, and I'll be able to take your examination.

2. Accompanied digging will get sinner and pastor to the ocean just east of New Zealand, from whence the acceleration from falling antipodally ought to project the pair rapidly toward Mr. Musk's car and driver, which will be approached but never reached.I can't subject any human to contamination by either person, I can't in Christ's name invoke Satan, so I leave the punishment to Someone more creative and if I am to participate, I would ask to be guided by His will.This question is no fun.

3. Click your heels together three times and repeat: "It can't be wrong when it feels so right.".

1, When I say I try to talk, this does not mean that I always succeed. It may be that the resistance is so incorrigibly sure of itself (in a Hunwickian sense) that instead of talking to a wall, it is best to climb over it. After all, there is an objective difference between a wife who systematically cheats on her husband, and one who, through mutual desire and consent, parted with her former husband, and now lives lovingly with another and wishes to procreate with him. It is pointless trying to talk with those who will not acknowledge this difference.

(1) When I perceive resistance I try to talk, most locquatiously, about collateral matters that, for the uninitiated, appear to address the resistance through affable engagement. However, it is mere dialectic misdirection and owing to the attention deficit disorder prevailing in nearly all contemporary periodicals I am largely left alone without having to suffer those pesky examination devices called follow-up questions.

This updating of Dostoevsky’s fable will challenge believers of every hue, and fascinate students of religion, philosophy and literature. The first graphic novel written in Miltonic blank verse, is exquisitely illustrated and promises to change the genre forever. The pope is dead. The Church is split. A rump conclave elects the first Black African pope in history, a hero who saved his people from persecution in Sudan. But a hostile cardinal kidnaps the new pope at the airport and holds him in secret at a mental hospital. To the captive, uncrowned pope "the Grand Inquisitor" lays out a dark conspiracy he has nurtured for 50 years to offer mankind salvation without the Cross. Will the new pope sign on to this "improved" version of Christianity? Will he end up dead? What obsessions join him to his enemy, and make his new vision so very tempting?

+++++++++++++++++++

Christianity without the Cross and Christ (Mercy and Justice) being set in opposition to Himself; literally, a half truth.

Fr John Hunwicke

was for nearly three decades at Lancing College; where he taught Latin and Greek language and literature, was Head of Theology, and Assistant Chaplain. He has served three curacies, been a Parish Priest, and Senior Research Fellow at Pusey House in Oxford. Since 2011, he has been in full communion with the See of S Peter. The opinions expressed on this Blog are not asserted as being those of the Magisterium of the Church, but as the writer's opinions as a private individual. Nevertheless, the writer strives, hopes, and prays that the views he expresses are conformable with and supportive of the Magisterium. In this blog, the letters PF stand for Pope Francis. On this blog, 'Argumentum ad hominem' refers solely to the Lockean definition, Pressing a man with the consequences of his own concessions'.